Now that we’ve had a chance to unwind and review the annual meeting (and for our Western Provinces members, a special election for their Regional Advocate seat), I’d like to publish some final thoughts and recommendations about the election cycle. For all of our reporting on the Annual Meeting and Board of Directors Election, please find the links at the top of our Election Index Page.
Board of Directors Election Scheduling
As it was our first Board election, we didn’t know how many candidates, or how much discussion, to prepare for. We wound up with fewer candidates than I was expecting, but overall our processes worked smoothly.
We did offer a generous window for candidates to submit statements and Q&A. While we didn’t want to set a cut-off too early and deprive voters of information about the candidates, our schedule was too generous, and led to several candidates submitting their initial statement and answers at the end of the Q&A period. This defeats the purpose of having such a long window, as voters were not able to scrutinize their statements and submit additional questions. In future cycles, a series of shorter, stricter deadlines would be beneficial to ensuring that the Q&A period works as intended.
Election Platform
Overall we heard that voting at the annual meeting went very smoothly, and we’re happy with the contracted online elections provider we used. However, they do charge based on the number of ballots created – not the number of actual voters – and that contract does need to be signed in advance. We should start the planning cycle for next year’s meeting earlier, so that we can set an earlier pre-registration deadline, and avoid paying for more than we need. (Two weeks of lead time would be ideal, to ensure that we can sign a contract based on the final and official attendee count.)
Elections Committee Membership
We expect to solicit for members of the Elections Committee again in the spring, to help us plan for and organize the 2025 Board and Regional Advocate elections.